Garden Salsa Sun Chips – Mmmm…

I have always been a fan of SunChips – especially the Harvest Cheddar – but for the first time in years I branched out to a new flavor, Garden Salsa SunChips. Just thinking about them makes me want to buy another bag.

Oh my! Look at the junk food everywhere!

I ate my first bag of Garden Salsa SunChips so fast (along with the help of my colleagues) that I forgot to take a photo of it to share! We just couldn’t stop! The salty, crispy, spicy flavor had me hooked.

This flavor reminds me a lot of the Harvest Cheddar, but there is just a hint of spice in it as well. It is suppose to taste like tomatoes, peppers and any other vegetable that goes into a mild salsa. It’s pretty close. It does taste a lot like salsa and a little cheese. Although SunChips can go stale pretty quick, the ripples and the crunch always leave you satisfied.

The thing that really makes SunChips different and stand out is the use of wheat, not potato. There is 18 grams of wheat per serving (that is about the same as a slice of wheat bread) which is healthier for you and provides whole grains that your body needs. I’m not saying they are a good supplement to replace other whole grain foods, but it is a perk.

I give SunChips a kudos for now having “more compostable bags” – following the “Go Green” trend – that are easier to decompose at trash sites or in your own compost. In 2010 they plan to introduce a full-compostable chip bag.

On Twitter?

Follow @SunChips for updates on the brand, the flavors, the bags.

If you want updates from this blog, I am also on Twitter: @ChipDipper

Making Potato Chips – Cooking with Oils

Every so often I like to think I can teach you a little bit more about the potato chip industry. I spoke with my chip-liaison and got a further inside scoop on the process of creating my favorite snack.

Every company will claim to vary from another to be healthier, but it all comes down to the similar cooking process. To make it easier on you, I’ll break it down into parts. In a previous post I explained the importance of the potato. Today we’ll talk about the oil frying primer for original potato chips.

Oil Frying

Frying is all about the oil. Different oils provide different amounts of fat to the finished product.

Generally the order of bad to good for you oils is approximately:

• Palm / coconut / tropical
• Lard
• Hydrogenated / shortening
• Peanut
• Soybean
• Safflower
• Cottonseed
• Corn
• Sunflower
• Canola

Taste differs by person, but generally the corn and sunflower have the lightest, cleanest taste. Peanut has a heavy but excellent flavor.

Some parts of the country still use lard for a greasy taste that one may be accustomed to. Only recently the biggest manufacturer stopped using hydrogenated for cost and storage reasons, with a similar waxy mouth as lard or tropical oils.

Appearance is important and the canola and sunflower have the lightest finished color. A blend of sunflower and canola provides good appearance and a pleasant taste. Canola by itself can produce a fishy taste, especially if not deodorized.

The potato chips are generally cooked between 360 and 400 degrees for approximately 5 minutes using a continuous cooker that pushes the potatoes through (can vary upon company).

Kettle chips generally use a batch process making 50 to several hundred pounds per batch. Kettles used to be a peanut oil product, but allergy fears and costs caused an oil change in most manufacturers.

Next up: Slicing Processes

(Special thanks to my source in the industry – I really appreciate all of your help and your simple explanations to the complicated process!)

Veggie Chips

A good friend of mine was able to attend Food Fete and Food Fancy in New York at the end of June. While there, I had her scouting out fun flavors of chips and snacks to bring back for this blog and boy did she bring back some unique flavors!

Sensible Portions: Veggie Chips

Veggie chips are a little lack luster of a snack. The texture is more like styrofoam with little flavor and a hint of salt. However, they fill you up.

You may not know the vegetable flavor they are suppose to taste like, but thanks to the color guide on the back we know that orange = carrots, green = spinach and yellow = potato.

They are healthier than a potato chip, but this is a whole different snack. Veggie Chips are low in carbohydrates, low in fat, but sodium similar to a potato chip and they don’t offer much for vitamins. The nutritional value decreases when vegetables are processed into a powder-like form before they are mixed with other ingredients and baked into a chip .

Sensible Portions also offers a variety of other snacks including pita chips (which I would LOVE to try) and multi-grain crisps.